"Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback."

For better or worse, the date April 20^th infamously sparks an eternal flame in the hearts of potheads across the world in celebration over their vice of choice – and the canon of cinematic stoners is certainly no exception. Hash-loving hippies have long cropped up in motion pictures as anti-establishment icons, quasi-kings of interminable philosophy, and occasionally as crutches for comic relief or character development. While the presence of marijuana in the movies holds a certain time capsule cache in relation to broader anxieties over cultural identity within era-defining films such as Easy Rider or American Beauty or even Children of Men – not to mention its propagandist roots in cautionary tales such as Reefer Madness – it has chiefly acted as a dispensary for daffy, dippy diversions in cannabis-centric comedies like Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Half Baked, or Cheech and Chong. 

Occasionally, a film strikes Humboldt gold and elevates the presence of the iconic drug to a – ahem – higher place, whether artistically, narratively, or thematically, and the prototypical example would have to be the Coen Brothers’ cult classic The Big Lebowski; that film relies on the aforementioned haze to bolster its emphasis on the transient absurdity of best laid plans, societal systems around class and gender, and sorting personal truths from fiction and lies. And provides the visual opportunity to stage a Busby Berkeley porn parody in an outer space bowling alley with trippy aplomb, a black-and-white stairway to heaven, and Julianne Moore in a Viking helmet.

On that note, who are some of your favorite jokers, smokers, and midnight tokers from the history of cinema?

On this day: Annie Hall, Hot Fuzz, Jessica Lange

On this day (April 20th) in history as it relates to showbiz...

1893 Harold Lloyd, silent comedian of excellence, born in Nebraska

1889 Adolf Hitler born. The German Führer has been played in movies by literally hundreds of actors including in recent years Robert Carlyle, Udo Keir, Noah Taylor, and Bruno Ganz. On this awful subject let's consider it a shame that Jodie Foster never made that rumored Leni Reifenstahl (Triumph of the Will) biopic she was interested in doing. That would have made an interesting less covered piece of the ever-harrowing Nazi puzzle.

⇱ 1924 Oscar nominated actress Nina Foch (Executive Suite, An American in Paris, Spartacus) is born in The Netherlands. She was awesome. 

1937 Modern gay hero George Takei born in Los Angeles. Becomes famous as Lt. Sulu in the Star Trek TV series in the 60s.

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Ten Little Links

People Mag Julia Roberts named "World's Most Beautiful" for record fifth time in the magazine's annual list
i09 new Fahrenheit 451 movie adaptation coming. To star two Michaels, Shannon and Jordan
Tampa Bay Times a street in Florida renamed "Moonlight Way" - how wonderful!
Towleroad Stranger Things "Barb" actress Shannon Purser has come out as bisexual
Variety Chris Pratt admits he was taken off guard by the harsh criticism of Passengers
In Contention Fox Searchlight lines up multiple Oscar hopefuls a year after the Birth of a Nation debacle
Playbill Anika Noni Rose set to play a who, along with her daughters, becomes the center of a hacking media storm in Assassination Nation 
Tracking Board Will Smith circling the genie role in the live action remake of Disney's Aladdin musical
Playbill the Drama League Nominations for 2017  
Film School Rejects on Hollywood's fascination with de-aging its stars and why, storytelling wise, this is generally a bad idea 

Exit Videos
We're just under a year away from the debut of the superhero TV series Cloak & Dagger but they've released a trailer anyway. Seems kinda early!

We've already covered The Beguiled teaser but here's the full trailer (which is very similar in structure but with extra footage). Having seen the 1971 film I wasn't worried about spoilers but you absolutely shouldn't watch this if you haven't seen the original film. For my taste it's a little too revealing. 

Captain Marvel might not be imaginary after all!

While I remain skeptical about Marvel Studios commitment to their female heroes, they took a small step forward in making Captain Marvel a reality by signing directors to the project. That's right, directors, as in plural. The writer/director duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck won the gig. They're not doing the screenplay this time (which is new for them) but still co-directing. They debuted with the searing Half Nelson for which Ryan Gosling earned a well deserved Best Actor nomination. Their subsequent films (Sugar, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Mississippi Grind) weren't quite as acclaimed but were respectable outings. They've recently been directing performance-centric shows like Looking, Billions and The Affair.   

What does this mean for the film? Well it bodes well for the acting (not that Brie Larson needs a lot of help there) since they always do right by the talent but we hope they have amazing first-timer intuitions in terms of helming action setpieces and doing a ton of greenscreen. What's the learning curve like on that?

Captain Marvel will supposedly open on March 8th, 2019. 

Best Supporting Actress - April Foolish Oscar Predix

With so many of our favorite working actresses in key potential Oscar roles this year this season is either going to be tremendously exciting or crushing disappointing. 

Can Woody Harrelson & Naomi Watts get his & hers nominations as the "deeply dysfunctional" parents of THE GLASS CASTLE?

THE SUPPORTING ACTRESS CHART IS UP

Answer me these questions three:

• Who you think we're underestimating?
• Which performance on the chart are you most anxious to see?
• Do you think any of the 4 time nominees (Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, and Michelle Williams) move to 5 nominee status this year? 5 is actually such a major threshold that's really hard for people to break into. Only 29 women, if I'm counting correctly, have done it with Julianne Moore and Amy Adams being the most recent inductees to that exclusive club). With maybe 2 exceptions (Geraldine Page and Thelma Ritter)  everyone who's ever managed 5 has been a rather huge movie star of their day, certainly bigger than Michelle Williams is now for example. Not that she couldn't do it with The Greatest Showman if the part is good enough. Some working giants that are, like Kidman and Roberts, currently at four (acting) nods include: Bening, Lawrence, McDormand, Mirren, and Emma Thompson.